1.04 Wizards. Need spec advice.

[Dave131]

So I am one of the many WW melee wizards that just had their spec nerfed pretty bad. I've been experimenting with other specs but so far, nothing really measures up. I swapped out a bunch of DPS for Arcane Power on Crit gear and tried out Meteor which is okay(ish) but that delay from the meteors falling is awful.

Anyway, my current stats are roughly as follows:

1600(ish) Intelligence
35k DPS
38% Crit(its low, I know, I'm gonna have to swap out my rings soon to compensate for the crit lost from using an APoC helm)
23 Arcane Power on Crit
Just over 1000 Life on Hit
About 850 All Res accept for Phys Res which is over 1000

Thanks for any advice ahead of time.

[Rubiconator]

So I am one of the many WW melee wizards that just had their spec nerfed pretty bad. I've been experimenting with other specs but so far, nothing really measures up. I swapped out a bunch of DPS for Arcane Power on Crit gear and tried out Meteor which is okay(ish) but that delay from the meteors falling is awful.

Anyway, my current stats are roughly as follows:

1600(ish) Intelligence
35k DPS
38% Crit(its low, I know, I'm gonna have to swap out my rings soon to compensate for the crit lost from using an APoC helm)
23 Arcane Power on Crit
Just over 1000 Life on Hit
About 850 All Res accept for Phys Res which is over 1000

Thanks for any advice ahead of time.

I use meteor with the arcane comet (AP reduction cost) and teleport with fracture, works just as fine, IF Not better then wicked winds, massive damage, I got slightly better gear then you though, 30 apoc and it works amazing

[Dave131]

I tested that out some last night. Seemed to work for A1 and 2 just fine but I wasn't so sure how I'd be faring in A3

Will have to see how that goes tonight

Also, does the DoT left on the ground from the meteor proc our APoC and LoH?

[jaakkeli]

With only 35k DPS, you're going to be either tanking or kiting a lot unless you want to run Act I only which means Bliz + Hydra + something else. LoH and APoC don't really do that much for most non-WW wizards so you can drop that gear for DPS.

The Electrocute buff has made Forked Lightning an interesting choice for trash grinding for those of us with a really high crit rate after playing WW spec for so long but with 35k DPS you won't kill shit with FL in Act 3. It's fairly cheap to buy a helm with +electrocute damage and it really does wipe out the trash like nothing else.

Archon is probably the best thing now that trash clearing actually matters but it's bad for Act 3 without close to 100k DPS...

[Rubiconator]

I tested that out some last night. Seemed to work for A1 and 2 just fine but I wasn't so sure how I'd be faring in A3

Will have to see how that goes tonight

Also, does the DoT left on the ground from the meteor proc our APoC and LoH?

The dot do proc Cm, which makes it really efficient, sure the delay of the actual impact feels slow, but the dot ticks keep the cm ticking. Use evocation aswell, and it works fantastic, just with more dmg. Its hard for singletarget tho, you really gotta corner your mob and get those comets falling.

Btw I just steamrolled through act4 without any problems really..

[jaakkeli]

Also, does the DoT left on the ground from the meteor proc our APoC and LoH?

Yes. It also procs Critical Mass.

The DoT is much better at proccing than the initial hit, actually, so if you run that build it's often best to just drop meteors on yourself even if the monsters won't be taking the initial hit as lots of monsters standing in meteor Dot means no cooldown on Diamond Skin and Frost Nova.

[Rubiconator]

Yes. It also procs Critical Mass.

The DoT is much better at proccing than the initial hit, actually, so if you run that build it's often best to just drop meteors on yourself even if the monsters won't be taking the initial hit as lots of monsters standing in meteor Dot means no cooldown on Diamond Skin and Frost Nova.

Another theory would be to run with the rune that increases the dot to 8 seconds perhaps?

[Dave131]

Another theory would be to run with the rune that increases the dot to 8 seconds perhaps?

Problem with that is Meteor is really expensive to use so you end up not being able to spam the spell as much

---------- Post added 2012-08-22 at 01:12 PM ----------

With only 35k DPS, you're going to be either tanking or kiting a lot unless you want to run Act I only which means Bliz + Hydra + something else. LoH and APoC don't really do that much for most non-WW wizards so you can drop that gear for DPS.

The Electrocute buff has made Forked Lightning an interesting choice for trash grinding for those of us with a really high crit rate after playing WW spec for so long but with 35k DPS you won't kill shit with FL in Act 3. It's fairly cheap to buy a helm with +electrocute damage and it really does wipe out the trash like nothing else.

Archon is probably the best thing now that trash clearing actually matters but it's bad for Act 3 without close to 100k DPS...

Well. 35k DPS is what it would say on paper. As it is, I have a DoT, a Nuke, and Chain Reaction going all the time. The melee Wizard stat priorities are really different than a Cannon Wiz which I dont really enjoy as much to be honest.

[jaakkeli]

Well. 35k DPS is what it would say on paper. As it is, I have a DoT, a Nuke, and Chain Reaction going all the time.

Yes, I know, it's much more than it appears for melee wizards. But low paper DPS means you're kind of locked into melee builds.

What build did you try with Meteor? After the WW nerf the gap between the Spectral Blade/Deep Cuts + Meteor build is much lessened as SB has some advantages over WW. SB with the Deep Cuts rune procs CM/LoH at a comparable rate now and SB does good, immediate damage which makes it *much* better against moving mobs. The downside is you can't permafreeze/perma-diamond-skin except when you have a pack that stands in meteor DoTs so you need very good defenses, a shield is very nice.

Deep Cuts + Meteor using wizard with a shield is probably the tankiest spec in game now as block interacts marvelously with Diamond Skin and the extra armor is great... but getting high block and decent damage is tough.

(In fact, you didn't list what armor you have. It's much more important for most melee wizards than resistances as while running Prismatic Armor you're likely getting a lot more effective health out of bonus armor than resistances.)

The melee Wizard stat priorities are really different than a Cannon Wiz which I dont really enjoy as much to be honest.

Well, there really aren't many options for making a melee wizard. Tanking archon does work if you have ridiculous gear but that's it...

[Dave131]

(In fact, you didn't list what armor you have. It's much more important for most melee wizards than resistances as while running Prismatic Armor you're likely getting a lot more effective health out of bonus armor than resistances.)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/D...8/hero/1824624 is my Wizard.

---------- Post added 2012-08-23 at 09:49 AM ----------

Okay. So. I can still steamroll A3 using Star Impact. Its not as easy as before but it works. I was using it with Chain Reaction but tonight I may try it out with Deep Cuts.